In total, 119 ballots were received. Voters were asked to rank matches from 1 to 100. Match #1 would receive 100 points; match #2 would receive 99 points, etc. Bonus points were also being given to matches in the top 30. For each ballot, the bonus points awarded were as follows: #1 (+7 pts), #2 (+5 pts), #3 (+4 pts), #4 through #7 (+3 pts), #8-#20 (+2 pts), #21-#30 (+1 pts).

RANK

MATCH

DATE & PLACE

POINTS

1

Sgt Slaughter vs Iron Sheik

(6/16/84 MSG)

11,944

2

Ricky Steamboat vs Randy Savage

(3/29/87 Pontiac MI Wrestlemania 3)

11,575

3

Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch vs Brisco Brothers

(12/28/84 MSG)

11,137

4

Bret Hart vs Randy Savage

(11/11/87 Seattle WA aired SNME 11/28/87)

10,100

5

Bret Hart vs Mr Perfect

(10/2/89 Wheeling WV)

9,974

6

Bob Backlund vs Adrian Adonis

(1/18/82 MSG)

9,971

7

Greg Valentine vs Ron Garvin

(9/30/89 MSG)

9,622

8

Glamour Girls vs Jumping Bomb Angels

(11/24/87 MSG)

9,449

9

Ricky Steamboat vs Jake Roberts

(8/9/86 Boston MA)

9,399

10

Sgt Slaughter vs Iron Sheik

(5/21/84 MSG)

9,395

11

Ultimate Warrior vs Rick Rude

(8/28/89 East Rutherford NJ Summerslam)

9,394

12

Brainbusters vs Hart Foundation

(8/28/89 East Rutherford NJ Summerslam)

9,334

13

Barry Windham vs Dick Murdoch

(2/16/85 Philadelphia PA)

9,215

14

Dynamite Kid vs Bret Hart

(9/14/85 Landover MD)

9,044

15

British Bulldogs vs Hart Foundation

(9/23/85 MSG)

9,009

16

Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat

(7/27/86 Toronto Ontario)

8,986

17

Bret Hart vs Ted DiBiase

(3/8/89 Odessa TX aired Prime Time 3/20/89)

8,978

18

Ricky Steamboat vs Bret Hart

(3/8/86 Boston MA)

8,705

19

Ricky Steamboat vs Bob Orton Jr

(7/20/85 Landover MD)

8,561

20

Hulk Hogan vs Big Bossman

(3/18/89 MSG)

8,505

21

Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase

(7/22/88 MSG)

8,164

22

Bob Backlund vs Adrian Adonis

(3/28/82 Landover MD)

8,129

23

Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch vs Bob Backlund/Brian Blair

(7/7/84 Philadelphia PA)

8,046

24

Randy Savage vs Tito Santana

(4/22/86 MSG)

8,019

25

Randy Savage/Adrian Adonis vs Tito Santana/Bruno Sammartino

(7/12/86 MSG)

7,913

26

Pat Patterson vs Sgt Slaughter

(5/4/81 MSG)

7,874

27

Bob Backlund vs Adrian Adonis

(3/20/82 Philadelphia PA)

7,842

28

Greg Valentine vs Ricky Steamboat

(6/21/85 MSG)

7,725

29

Strike Force vs Islanders

(10/3/87 Boston MA)

7,707

30

Rick Rude vs Roddy Piper

(12/28/89 MSG)

7,605

31

Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts

(11/15/86 Los Angeles CA aired 11/29/86 SNME)

7,512

32

Rockers vs Brainbusters

(10/31/89 Topeka KS aired 11/25/89 SNME)

7,497

33

Bob Backlund vs Sgt Slaughter

(1/10/81 Philadelphia PA)

7,440

34

Fabulous Rougeau Bros vs Rockers

(10/10/89 London England)

7,419

35

Bob Backlund vs Sgt Slaughter

(3/21/81 Philadelphia PA)

7,364

36

Rougeau Bros vs Hart Foundation

(9/22/86 MSG)

7,202

37

Blue Angel vs Barry Horowitz

(8/13/88 Los Angeles CA)

7,051

38

Bob Backlund vs Buddy Rose

(11/25/82 Philadelphia PA)

7,041

39

Mr Perfect vs Ronnie Garvin

(12/12/89 Nashville TN)

6,919

40

Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch vs Sgt Slaughter/Terry Daniels

(7/23/84 MSG)

6,915

41

Tito Santana vs Ron Bass

(8/22/87 MSG)

6,846

42

Dream Team vs British Bulldogs

(4/7/86 Rosemont IL Wrestlemania 2)

6,834

43

Sgt Slaughter vs Iron Sheik

(5/19/84 Landover MD)

6,777

44

British Bulldogs vs Hart Foundation

(11/1/86 Boston MA)

6,748

45

Dream Team vs Ricky Steamboat/Tito Santana

(4/21/85 Toronto)

6,724

46

Mr Perfect vs Ron Garvin

(3/18/89 Boston MA)

6,693

47

Rockers vs Rougeau Bros

(10/13/89 Paris France)

6,625

48

Jake Roberts vs Ted DiBiase

(4/24/89 MSG)

6,587

49

Ten Man Tag Survivor Series 1988

(11/24/88 Richfield OH 1988 Survivor Series)

6,225

50

Hart Foundation vs Killer Bees

(2/23/87 MSG)

6,156

51

Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown

(4/25/88 MSG)

6,085

52

Ricky Steamboat vs Jake Roberts

(8/28/86 Toronto Big Event)

5,885

53

Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage

(4/2/89 Atlantic City NJ Wrestlemania 5)

5,880

54

Tito Santana vs Paul Orndorff

(9/1/84 St Louis MO)

5,816

55

Ten Man Tag Survivor Series 1987

(11/26/87 Richfield OH Survivor Series 1987)

5,764

56

Ken Patera vs Pat Patterson

(4/21/80 MSG)

5,685

57

Les Thornton vs Mr Wrestling II

(3/2/85 Atlanta GA)

5,465

58

Bob Backlund vs Ivan Koloff

(6/4/83 Philadelphia PA)

5,361

59

Rick Rude vs Tito Santana

(2/11/89 Boston MA)

5,274

60

Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage

(1/27/86 MSG)

5,251

61

Sgt Slaughter vs Paul Orndorff

(6/2/84 Philadelphia PA)

5,206

62

Hart Foundation vs Twin Towers

(5/17/89 Duluth MN)

5,185

63

Tito Santana vs Bob Orton Jr

(8/9/86 Boston MA)

5,039

64

Bob Backlund vs Sgt Slaughter

(10/20/80 MSG)

4,920

65

Bob Backlund vs Hulk Hogan

(4/8/80 Philadelphia PA)

4,907

66

Bob Backlund vs Stan Hansen

(6/6/81 MSG)

4,829

67

Honky Tonk Man vs Ricky Steamboat

(8/22/87 MSG)

4,723

68

Tito Santana vs Butch Reed

(5/12/87 Anaheim CA aired PTW 5/12/87)

4,621

69

Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko

(4/21/80 MSG)

4,600

70

Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage

(2/17/86 MSG)

4,467

71

Hulk Hogan vs Iron Sheik

(5/5/84 Philadelphia PA)

4,382

72

Bob Orton Jr vs Mike Rotundo

(12/1/84 Philadelphia PA)

4,374

73

Hulk Hogan vs Paul Orndorff

(12/14/86 Hartford CT aired 1/3/87 SNME)

4,344

74

Hulk Hogan vs Bad News Brown

(2/16/89 Hersey PA aired 3/11/89 SNME)

4,076

75

Tim Horner vs Barry Horowitz

(12/30/88 MSG)

4,022

76

Bruno Sammartino/Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper/Bob Orton Jr

(10/26/85 Philadelphia PA)

3,983

77

Hulk Hogan vs Bob Orton Jr

(5/12/87 Anaheim CA Superstars aired 5/23/87)

3,870

78

Don Muraco vs Jimmy Snuka

(8/16/83 Philadelphia PA)

3,796

79

Iron Sheik vs Tito Santana

(1/21/84 Philadelphia PA)

3,735

80

Hulk Hogan vs Paul Orndorff

(7/7/84 Philadelphia PA)

3,690

81

Johnny Rodz/Jose Estrada vs Tony Garea/Steve Travis

(9/18/82 Philadelphia PA)

3,503

82

Jimmy Snuka vs Roddy Piper

(7/20/84 St Louis MO)

3,360

83

Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko

(4/8/80 Philadelphia PA)

3,346

84

Ted DiBiase vs Jacques Rougeau

(9/16/87 Rockford IL aired Fall '87)

3,324

85

Ricky Steamboat/Junkyard Dog vs Don Muraco/Mr Fuji

(8/17/85 Landover MD)

3,305

86

Brainbusters vs Young Stallions

(11/6/88 Toronto)

3,295

87

Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch vs Mil Mascaras/SD Jones

(6/26/84 St Louis MO aired TNT)

3,138

88

Ken Patera vs Pat Patterson

(12/29/80 MSG)

2,945

89

Roddy Piper/Bob Orton Jr vs Jimmy Snuka/Tony Atlas

(1/12/85 Philadelphia PA)

2,943

90

Sgt Slaughter vs Rick McGraw

(6/20/81 Philadelphia PA)

2,937

91

Hulk Hogan vs Don Muraco

(5/20/85 MSG)

2,773

92

Randy Savage vs Bad News Brown

(1/16/89 Hamilton Ontario)

2,700

93

Don Muraco vs Pedro Morales

(11/23/81 MSG)

2,601

94

Hulk Hogan vs David Shultz

(6/17/84 Minneapolis MN)

2,473

95

Hulk Hogan vs Ted DiBiase

(3/12/88 Philadelphia PA)

2,276

96

Hulk Hogan vs Don Muraco

(6/21/85 MSG)

2,255

97

Johnny Rodz vs Kuniaki "Chin" Kobayashi

(11/25/82 Philadelphia PA)

1,892

98

Hulk Hogan vs Nikolai Volkoff

(10/3/85 East Rutherford NJ aired SNME 10/5/85)

1,732

99

Randy Savage vs Tito Santana

(3/16/86 MSG)

1,523

100

Andre Giant vs Killer Khan

(11/14/81 Philadelphia PA)

1,114

What role do BONUS POINTS play?

In short, not a lot. If we didn't give any bonus points out, we could simply average the ranks on all the ballots and rank them in ascending order of average rank. If you compare a list of matches ranked by average rank to a list of matches ranked by total points (including bonus points), turns out they are extremely similar. There are 37 matches which would change ranks but the most extreme change was moving three places. The average change was only about 1.35 places. If there was less than 100 total points between two positions, there was a 45% chance that they would switch on a list by average rank. On the chart below, the dots in blue represent matches whose rank would not change. The dots in red are the matches were the rank would be altered. As you can see, the chart still retains a very linear relationship either way it was graphed.

WHAT ABOUT A SIMPLER BALLOT?

At the bottom of this analysis is some quartile distribution charts. Their purpose is to demonstrate that a given match basically falls into a significant range of rankings among the ballots collected in our survey. Let's take for instance, “Hart Foundation vs Killer Bees (2/23/87 MSG)”, which was ranked #50 based on Points. About 25% of the voters ranked it below 35 while about 25% of the voters ranked it above 65. Therefore, assigning this match a middle position of fifty still results in more than half of the voters disagreeing with this ranking. They’ll complain it’s at least 15 spots too high or too low. The average rank for this match was 49.71 and the standard deviation was 18.50. Recall that in a normal distribution, about 95.5% of the range of votes should be enclosed within two standard deviations of the mean in each direction – 12.7 to 86.7 in our example. There are three observations that fall outside this range (two low and one high) which represents about 2.5% of our voters.This analysis helps us determine the general range of rankings for each match that most people would agree upon. However, a range of “somewhere between 13 and 86” isn’t really useful. All that really implies is that 97% of the voters agreeing this match was a, “pretty good match, an average match or a pretty bad match” when compared to the rest of the choices. Instead, I suggest that the matches were there was really a consensus opinion were those are the beginning and ends of the list. Those are the ones we should put more emphasis into examination since those were the ones that people really made bold statements about.And so this conclusion provoked the thought: is there a simpler ballot (instead of requiring a complete ranking between one and hundred) that could have narrowed candidate list into pool into the same pool for best and worst matches?

CONSIDER: The TOP50 Test

Consider what would have occurred if we had just instructed the voters as such: “Divide this group of one hundred matches into two categories: GOOD and NOT-SO-GOOD. Put fifty on each list.”

Here the voter doesn’t have the option of assigning bonus points to matches. All those on the GOOD list are just grouped together. I ran a sample test using our dataset which just looked at whether a match was ranked in the top 50 or not. Essentially, those matches compromised that person’s list of GOOD matches.

When we collect the ballots, we simply calculate the percentage of ballots that vote a particular match on the GOOD list.

Interestingly, the top 20 matches with the highest “Top 50 Percentages” are the same top 20 matches that received the most points and the lowest average ranks. Similarly, the top 4 matches are also the same in all three categories! Now, this method isn’t going to give us a perfect ranking (for instance, “Bret Hart vs Ted DiBiase - 3/8/89 Odessa TX aired Prime Time 3/20/89” which was ranked #17 by points and #15 by pure rankings received the fifth most votes on the hypothetical GOOD list with 95%). Thus, this criterion would be excellent for narrowing our scope so we can concentrate on certain ranges of matches like the top quarter and bottom ten.

We’ve already established that #1 and #2 had very strong consensus following that they were very good matches in the upper echelon. Interesting, there was also a strong consensus on the stinkers. “Andre the Giant vs Killer Khan” received 25 votes for the worst match (21% of the voters) and 73% of the votes putting it in the bottom ten.

Those were the matches that had rankings that were most concentrated in a certain range (though note, you’d have still have quite a range covered within the two standard deviation rule!), we should also consider the matches with the largest standard deviations. They were:

Perhaps it would be intriguing in the future to have several people write reviews of these matches to discuss what different aspects people seemed to love and hate about them!

Most interestingly, both Survivor Series Match fall into this grey area that could be dubbed “most debated”. 61% of voters ranked the 1988 Survivor Series Match as better than the 1987 Survivor Series. Interesting, voters seemed to strongly prefer the one match over the other! On average, a voter would rank the other Survivor Series match about twenty places lower than whichever was their favorite.

Who is the best worker?

Obviously, utilizing a simple ranked list isn’t going to settle the debate about whether it’s possible to even determine the best wrestler (or worker) in a group. We can’t review all the facets, constraints and truly incorporate complexity of what goes into such preparation, analysis and execution in a wrestling match. (Or even agree as a group on exact criteria to judge upon!) Instead, we simply have a broad snapshot of a hundred matches held in an arbitrary time span covering ten years, all whom worked at that time for a certain company. We’re not judging upon a wrestler’s entire body of promos, live gate receipts, feud politics and a million other factors. However, we can take a stab at the dark just because it’s fun.

There were One Hundred Matches. 23 were Tag Matches, 2 were Survivor Series Matches and 75 were Singles Matches. Here is a list of how many matches each wrestler was involved in:

So, Hulk Hogan had the most matches nominated? Furthermore, they were all Singles matches suggesting he (or at least his direct feud) was the draw in that match. Does that mean he had the best matches? He certainly drew huge crowds and earned a lot of money in 1980s WWF. However, as a quick review of the rankings of his matches on the list, we can see that these voters didn't care much his work. Is he a victim of just being overlisted? Let's investigate!

(those with three or more singles matches)

Wrestler

Singles Matches

Average Singles Match Rank

Bret Hart

6

18.2

Adrian Adonis

3

18.3

Ricky Steamboat

8

26.4

Mr Perfect

3

30

Ron Garvin

3

30.7

Rick Rude

3

33.3

Jake Roberts

4

35

Sgt Slaughter

9

40.3

Iron Sheik

5

40.8

Bob Backlund

10

41.4

Randy Savage

11

42.9

Ted DiBiase

5

53

Pat Patterson

3

56.7

Bob Orton Jr

4

57.8

Tito Santana

8

60.9

Paul Orndorff

4

67

Bad News Brown

3

72.3

Hulk Hogan

15

74.5

Don Muraco

4

89.5

Bret Hart and Adrian Adonis are fighting each other for the top spot. Ricky Steamboat follows those two in singles wrestling with the trio of R-three-match men (Ronnie, Rude and Roberts) clustered right behind Curt “Mr Perfect” Hennig. (Meanwhile, Don Muraco struggles to keep all of his matches out of the bottom ten!)

There are two approaches to how we could calculate a score for each wrestler. The first way would be to average the ranks of all the matches that a wrestler is involved in (“average rank”). The second way would be we could weight the matches depending on the number of people in it (“adjusted weight”). (In reality, they are the same method: one is giving equal weighting to all the matches and the other uses a specialized weight based on the number of opponents.) In this analysis, I used a weighting system that said each person in a match shared equal responsibility for the outcome of the ranking. So a singles match was 50% the work of each wrestler while a survivor series match only meant credit for 5% should go to each wrestler. So, a singles match would be weighted twice as much as a tag match and a Survivor Series match (involving twenty people) is therefore weighted very lightly.

Consider the example of Jacques Rougeau. He had six matches on the list: One singles, three Tag and both Survivor Series. The final rank (by points) of his matches were: TAG (34, 36, 47), Survivor Series (49, 55) and Singles (84). So his average weight was 50.7 (304/6). However, his adjusted weight is [(34*.25 + 36*.25 + 47*.25) + (49*.05 + 55*.05) + (84*.50)] / (3*.25 + 2*.05 + .5) = 76.45 / 1.35 = 56.6. In his case, his poor showing the singles match really brought his average higher because it was weighted much heavier than all the other matches. Similarly, a wrestler like Nikolai Volkoff is punished severely (adjusted rank drops 23 places versus the average rank) for having a terrible SNME singles match; his average isn’t as buoyed by the two Survivor Series matches that were ranked in the middle of the pack.

With very strong showings in the Singles and Tag categories, no surprise that Bret Hart and Adrian Adonis lead the pack. However, Greg Valentine's strong showing in third place is a bit of a shocker. In retrospect, he had two singles matches in the top 30 along with three Tag & Survivor Series matches that were all in the mid-40s. Dynamite Kid finishes fourth with two top twenty matches (a singles with Bret and WM2 tag) and the rest of his tag matches clustered between 45 and 55. Meanwhile, Dick Murdoch rounds out the top five with his three matches in the top 25 but a terrible Mascaras/SD Jones tag match that finished very poorly. Ricky Steamboat is narrowly edged out by Murdoch though Steamboat did have twice as many matches on the list.

Here is the rest of the wrestler’s finishes. Mr Perfect, Ron Garvin, Rick Rude, Jake Roberts and the Rockers had notably strong performance combined with three or four matches apiece.

Wrestler

AVG RANK

MATCHES

ADJ RANK

Jack Brisco

3

1

3

Jerry Brisco

3

1

3

Itsuki Yamazaki

8

1

8

Judy Martin

8

1

8

Leilani Kai

8

1

8

Noriyoi Tateno

8

1

8

Ultimate Warrior

10

1

10

Barry Windham

13

1

13

Mr Perfect

30.7

3

30.7

Ron Garvin

31

3

31

Haku

39

2

32.3

Rick Martel

39

2

32.3

Tama

39

2

32.3

Rick Rude

33

3

33

Big Bossman

40

2

33

Jake Roberts

35

4

35

Blue Angel

37

1

37

Brian Blair

40.7

3

37.6

Buddy Rose

38

1

38

Marty Jannetty

42

4

38.8

Shawn Michaels

42

4

38.8

Terry Daniels

39

1

39

Ron Bass

41

1

41

Brutus Beefcake

43

2

43

Arn Anderson

46.3

4

44.1

Tully Blanchard

46.3

4

44.1

Dino Bravo

49

1

49

Jim Brunzell

49.5

2

49.8

Ax

52

2

52

Boris Zhukov

52

2

52

Smash

52

2

52

Barbarian

55

1

55

Jose Louis Riviera

55

1

55

Warlord

55

1

55

Barry Horowitz

56

2

56

Pat Patterson

57

3

57

Les Thornton

57

1

57

Mr Wrestling II

57

1

57

Ivan Koloff

58

1

58

Akeem

61

1

61

Roddy Piper

69

4

64.7

Stan Hansen

66

1

66

Honky Tonk Man

67

1

67

Butch Reed

68

1

68

Bruno Sammartino

63.8

4

68.2

Mike Rotundo

71

1

71

Bad News Brown

72.3

3

72.3

Ken Patera

72.5

2

72.5

Tim Horner

75

1

75

Jim Powers

63.3

3

76.3

Paul Roma

63.3

3

76.3

Jose Estrada Sr

68

2

76.7

Larry Zbyszko

77

2

77

Steve Travis

81

1

81

Tony Garea

81

1

81

Jimmy Snuka

82.7

3

81.6

Junkyard Dog

84

1

84

Mr Fuji

84

1

84

Mil Mascaras

87

1

87

SD Jones

87

1

87

Tony Atlas

88

1

88

Rick McGraw

90

1

90

Nikolai Volkoff

67.3

3

90.3

Johnny Rodz

89

2

91.7

Pedro Morales

93

1

93

David Shultz

94

1

94

Kuniaki "Chin" Kobayashi

97

1

97

Andre Giant

100

1

100

Killer Khan

100

1

100

SOME MORE DATA FOR THOSE INTERESTED

YEAR BY YEAR

total points

year

matches

avg points

avg rank that year

rank by avg points

1980

26,403

6

4,401

64.6

10

1981

34,159

7

4,880

60.6

8

1982

38,378

6

6,396

48.4

4

1983

9,157

2

4,579

62.7

9

1984

90,388

15

6,026

51.2

5

1985

72,734

13

5,595

54.5

6

1986

97,827

15

6,522

46.7

3

1987

74,135

11

6,740

45.1

2

1988

37,118

7

5,303

56.9

7

1989

128,267

18

7,126

41.7

1

Later years 1989 and 1987 led the pack while earlier years 1980 and 1983 were the weakest. We can basically break the finishes into three groups: good (1982, 1986, 1987, 1989), okay (1984, 1985, 1988), not-so-good (1980, 1981, 1983). Best years (#1-#4) all had average ranks in the mid-40s. Those with average ranks in the mid-50s performed okay finishing fifth, sixth and seventh. Those with average ranks in the 60s finished rounded out the pack.

QUARTILE DISTRIBUTIONS

In all, we're largely interested in where the majority of voters placed individual matches. There will always be voters who rate a certain match incredibly high or low as compared to the rest of the pack. So, one way to compenstate for this is to consider the quartile distributions. We rank all the votes and essentially look at the spread of a histogram (frequency of rank).

The vertical line represents the spread from the 25% to 75% marks in the ranking distribution for each match. The short horizontal line represents the median (50%) rank.